Twelve Minutes, Twenty Seven Seconds
by Nyaa-Neko
Summary: Ikkyu has to deal with a small glitch when creating a clone of an I Jin. He ends up spending twelve minutes and twenty seven seconds with Nancy at age five. One shot. Takes place before the OAV.


Twelve Minutes, Twenty-Seven Seconds

Ikkyu snarled at the outcome. Dokusensha was supposed to be a genius organization...and yet, there was one small flaw with each new I-Jin replica's aging process.

Although each of them would be accelerated to whatever age was needed, they needed to spend exactly twelve minutes and twenty-seven seconds at the age of five, and without any powers what so ever. Ikkyu had no idea why this had to be the way it was, but for some odd reason, none of the I-Jin could exist without those twelve minutes and twenty-seven seconds as a child.

And right there in front of him was the woman he had chosen to be his lover.

Standing less than four feet tall.

The man grimaced as the girl smiled cutely up at him. Supposedly, they would spend the small amount of time in an state of amnesia, lose consciousness when it was over, grow rapidly, then wake up at whatever age was needed, with no apparent memory of their time as a normal, human five-year-old.

Until then, however, he'd have to spend a little time as a babysitter.

"Hi, mister!" She giggled, her deep red eyes shining. "Are you my daddy?"

Ikkyu glared at her. "No, I'm not. Now be quiet, and don't talk." She wouldn't remember this, anyway.

The girl tipped her head, her blue hair falling prettily around her young face. Her _too-young_ face. She really wasn't the goddess of beauty he had wanted if she was a little child.

"Aw, why are you being mean? Come on! Let's play, mister!" She jumped up a little. "I wanna play!"

"No playing! You are an I-Jin, and you must learn to eventually conduct yourself in such a manner!" He shouted, brandishing his staff, the skull clicking menacingly.

The little girl shrieked, her eyes growing watery. "Aah! Scary! Make it go away, mister!"

Ikkyu scoffed, and pulled the staff away. Although the fully-grown Mata Hari would have no _apparent_ memory of this time, he wouldn't want her to have some underlying hatred of him. Not for what he wanted her for.

Maybe if he just played along...

"Fine. The staff is going to be over here, far away from you, understand?" He placed it in the opposite corner of the room from the shivering girl who looked like she was about to cry. She nodded slowly, sniffling.

"Uh-huh. The scary stick won't hurt me?"

Ikkyu rolled his eyes, and then looked at a timer he had set up. Nine minutes and forty-two seconds left...

"Now then, little Mata Hari, what do you want to do?" He asked, trying his best to smile warmly. It didn't really turn out well, but then again, he wasn't the kind of person who would smile warmly at will or unconsciously. He was more of an evil, take-over-the-world kind of guy.

Because, after all, that's what he wanted to do. Wipe out most of humanity, leaving a perfect world for only the most perfect people. Who would include him, and, if everything turned out as it should, the older version of the small child standing in front of him, who was giving the staff worried looks.

"Um...is Masha Kari my name?" She asked, looking genuinely innocent.

"No, no, it's pronounced Mata Hari."

"That's what I said, Tama Rahi."

"No! It's Ma-ta-ha-ri!"

"Ran-ran-ran-rin!"

At this point, the two of them were either in a state of uncontrollable giggles, or barely controllable rage.

"Can't you say Mata Hari?"

"What's your name, mister?"

"Don't change the subject, stupid little girl!" He almost was going to kill the girl right there and not bother with having a woman at his side. However, the phasing powers and the appeal of having a lover to toy with and use to take down opposition were all too useful for his plans.

"I'M NOT STUPID!" She shrieked, her eyes tearing.

And one second later, Ikkyu was facing the back of a sobbing five-year-old Mata Hari.

He let out a tired breath, and looked at his timer. Six minutes and seventeen seconds. Just about halfway done with all of this nonsense...

"I-I H-H-HATE Y-YOU M-MIS-STER!" The girl screamed, sobbing loudly at the same time. "Y-YOU'R-RE A M-MEAN-NIE!"

"This better not have an effect on her when she's her final age." He muttered as he walked over to her, glaring down at the small form, who had began hugging her knees and crying into them, shaking back and forth.

"G-go aw-way, m-mean-nie." She whispered, her words still broken up by her sobs.

"Mata Hari, please stop all of this. I will not tolerate it any longer." He stated, trying to scare her into temporary submission. The man had no doubts that she would be completely loyal once she awoke for the first time as a full-grown woman, but she was being just plain annoying as a five-year-old.

"N-no!"

Ikkyu sighed. Well, there was really only one way to solve all of this, and he didn't think he could take...he checked the timer...five minutes and four seconds more of a distressed and crying young Mata Hari.

Or whatever her would call her as a fake name. Ann Nakahara or whatever he'd decided on.

"Hey, Mata Hari?"

"W-what?"

Ikkyu grimaced at the thought of what he was about to say next.

"Do you want some ice cream?"

She turned around to face him, wiping her eyes. "Sniff...okay..." He, once again, attempted a grin, but it turned out as more of a smirk. "Mister, what's your name?"

"My name is Ikkyu."

"That's a weird name."

"Get used to it. You'll be hearing it a lot. And you will grow up to be my girlfriend."

"Eeeeew! I don't wanna have a boyfriend! That's gross!" She squealed. Ikkyu stood up, and looked down at her.

"You won't think that when you're all grown up."

The girl stood up too, an expression that was a mix of disgust and slight happiness on her face. Ikkyu thought there were some other emotions in that look as well, but they were practically unreadable.

"Mister Ikkyu?" She asked as she grabbed his hand as they started walking over to a small room where Ikkyu kept all of his day-to-day supplies, like food. "When I'm a big girl, will you still give me ice cream?"

He smirked, a true one, not an accidental one, as his hand reached for a small carton of vanilla ice cream. "I think other things will be on your mind."

"Oh."

As he handed her a small bowl of the white, sugary dessert, he glanced at the timer. Two minutes and thirty-one seconds.

"Mister Ikkyu? Do I have to be your girlfriend?" She whined as she finished her ice cream (rather quickly).

"Yes."

"Then...can you buy me a pony? I want a pony!" She giggled, a huge smile spreading across her little face. With, of course, a little bit of white, melted ice cream on her upper lip.

Ikkyu stared at her as she then went about describing how she was going to be a princess with a pony. A magical princess, of course, with a magic pony. Because, as you would obviously know, magical ponies are the best. They can fly, and only a magical princess would ever be able to have a magic pony.

"Which means I want a pretty dress! I want a pink one! I like pink, do you like pink?" She chattered on happily while Ikkyu stared at the timer.

Two minutes and three seconds, two minutes and two seconds, two minutes and one second, two minutes, one minute and fifty-nine seconds, one minute and fifty-eight seconds...

"Well? Do you like pink?" She demanded, her hands on her hips.

"No, I don't like pink." He replied curtly, eyes still on the timer. One minute and fifty-two seconds left...

"Do you like...black? 'Cause your hair's black! Or maybe brown? You're wearing brown." The five-year-old noted while staring at the man she would grow up to fall in love with.

"I don't know, Mata Hari." Ikkyu groaned as he thought in his head how much longer one minute and forty-four seconds seemed versus how long it actually was.

"Hey, Mister Ikkyu! Let's play!"

"There's no time to do that." He muttered under his breath even as Mata Hari, who apparently hadn't heard him, grabbed his rough hand and started dragging him off to another corner of his supply room.

Of course, with one minute and nineteen seconds left, she reached her destination, which was his small table of tools. And weaponry.

"What are you doing? DON'T TOUCH THAT!"

The girl looked up at him with her huge, innocent red eyes, pulling her hand slowly away from the barrel of a small handgun.

"But what does it _do_, Mister Ikkyu? Is it a meanie?"

And this was coming from somebody who was probably going to have to know that machine inside and out the next day.

His eyes quickly glanced over at the timer. One minute and four seconds. Not that much time left with this annoyance...

"Well? Hello! Miiiiiiiiiiister Iiiiiiiiiiikkyu!" She jumped up in front of him and waved her hands around in front of him, trying to get his attention.

"What is it now, Mata Hari?" Ikkyu groaned, his hand absentmindedly scratching his dark hair and rough beard.

She stopped her jumping and waving, and just stared up at him, her mouth in a cute little frown. But soon, Ikkyu wouldn't be dealing with cute, but more...

"MISTER IKKYU! LET'S PLAY!"

And she would certainly not say those four words as many times all together. Of course, if she ever did, not only would it have an entirely different meaning, and she wouldn't even say "mister" at the beginning. Or at least, it wouldn't be very likely.

Plus, she would scream it out, grab his hand, and start running around with him while chattering on about how she wanted to pretend that she was a princess, and that he was going to be her prince, and how she wanted to dress up, and how she wanted to go to a castle, and how she wanted to have that pony, and how she wanted to have it _now_, and how she wanted to...

Thirty-four seconds left.

"Mister Ikkyu!" She asked in a singsong voice. Apparently, Ikkyu had focused his attention on the timer at precisely the wrong moment, since Mata Hari had grabbed some item she had found in his supply room, and had it hidden from sight behind her back.

But her other hand, the hand that wasn't holding that item, and the hand she would use to shoot from in the future, was still holding on to his.

Ikkyu supposed that when she was older, her hand would feel different. A five-year-old Mata Hari's hand felt really tiny and soft, and as if he would break it if he squeezed too hard.

And he certainly didn't want that, because if, for some reason, this one failed in some way, he'd have to make another Mata Hari clone. Which would mean, until he found some way to avoid it, spending another twelve minutes and twenty-seven seconds with a five-year-old girl.

"What is it now, Mata Hari?" He groaned, hoping she hadn't grabbed something that was dangerous or would hinder his plans in any way what so ever.

She giggled, and opened her mouth to say something.

And she took in a breath of air to fuel her words...

But they never came out.

For at that very moment, after she had taken that breath, she collapsed. It was very sudden, and it all happened almost instantaneously. That last second of the twelve minutes, twenty-seven seconds she was standing up, very much awake and full of energy and about to say something, and the next second after her time as a five-year-old was over, she was asleep. She just crumpled, and would have hit the floor if Ikkyu hadn't kept her in a slumped, yet standing position by holding her hand.

After she lost consciousness, Ikkyu breathed a sigh of relief.

"Finally, it's all over."

He led her body to a lying position on the floor, where he felt her skin start to pulse in its continued rapid growth. Her breathing became a little shorter, and her eyelids squeezed together as her face took on an expression of pain or determination.

And she grew a little bigger, and looked a little bit older. Maybe five-and-one-half or six, but not that much. It would be quite awhile before she would wake up in her twenties.

Ikkyu was about to leave her there, on the floor, to go back to his lab work, when he realized the item she had taken was still in one of her hands. So, just to take back whatever it was, he stepped over her sleeping and growing body, and bent down to pick up her other hand, and see what was inside of it.

He raised one eyebrow as he examined what she had taken.

It was a small pink flower, not large, and small enough for him not to notice it was in his supply room in the first place.

"That seems a little unlike my Mata Hari." He certainly didn't want his girlfriend to be a girly, flower-picking, pink-loving girl. What he wanted was more dark and mysterious.

But then again...

This was a child. A little five-year-old. Most little girls find pink flowers pretty.

And want to play dress-up, and be a princess, and have a pony...

He looked back over to the face of the little girl, and imagined what she would look like when she woke up. Same hair, it eyes, but would she have that same innocent look? Certainly not after she assumed her position as a spy, but there was always the possibility...

Ikkyu grimaced as a thought came into his head.

This child would be gone in the future, but what would it be like if she became a mother? The mother of his child?

He stood up, and walked into his lab, crushing the flower in his hand. Remnants of the pink petals drifted slowly down to the floor as his hand curled open, and he wiped his hand carelessly on the palm of his other hand to loose more reminders of what was once a cute little flower.

* * *

Author's Note: Thank you for reading this little one-shot that popped into my head last night! I was all, "I'm tired" then I went from that, to the idea behind this story. So…I'm very sorry if Nancy or Ikkyu seemed out-of-character in this. I tried to keep Ikkyu as in-character as possible under the circumstances, and, well, I didn't really try very hard to do that with Nancy, since people act different when they are five versus twenty-six. So, it would REALLY help me if you could review this! Constructive criticism would be great, since there's a multi-chapter ROD story I'm planning on doing, starring none other than Nancy herself, so it would really help if I could know how well I did on this one.

Disclaimer: Read or Die and all of the characters in it do not belong to me; they belong to Hideyuki Kurata and any other legal and respective owners.


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